How To Video: How to install a Nest Thermostat

How To Video: How to install a Nest Thermostat

3:54 /
7 October 2013

At $250, it's a little pricey, but with its easy of use, simple styling, and online interface, this Nest Thermostat might save you money in the long run.

The Nest Thermostat.
They say it learns how you live . It will program your heating and cooling to save you a bunch of money.
It's internet accessible.
It's real simple to use.
Kinda like an iPad on wall and it looks pretty cool, but is it all about the stuff 250 bucks worth?
I'm Brian Cooley with the How To ,so you had to get this guys installed and get started using it.
Let's go.
Now you know how cryptic and tedious modern programmable thermostats are.
With all those little menus and configurations and buttons.
They just no longer make sense in our world full of connected devices with elegant interfaces.
The Nest includes a thermostat itself.
Some base plates.
Now before you even get your Nest, they make you take a little poll on their site when you order it to check if your system and wire are gonna be compatible.
When mine arrived, I didn't like this silvery color you see mostly around the body.
They say it picks up the color of your wall and kinda becomes a chameleon within your wall color.
A, I didn't buy and B, I like to save silver for things like the box of iPads, not in my home.
So, I painted it , the color of my home.
Now this is almost certainly gonna club your wall and take, but (statics ?) matter.
You can separate the ring from the body via four small screws and a ribbon connector . Then mask everything on the ring except that outside part you're gonna paint.
Luckily, the paint brand I use on my house also sells some of their popular colors in rattle cans, already mixed.
So, I got an exact match.
Now put the thermostat head back together in the reverse of disassembly.
Be careful putting in those four little screws.
The trick is to start them counterclockwise till you feel them click then go clockwise to tighten.
That way , you're not gonna re-cut the threads the second time and weaken the assembly.
Pull out the old thermostat, make note of the terminal each wire was connected to and now its time to start installing your nest.
Now as you can see, I installed mine with a wall plate.
You can go with the square one, there's a bigger rectangular one they include or not at all.
It will be a combination of what look you like and also what kind of holes you're trying to cover up and of course I also painted the wall plate to match the thermostat and the house.
There's a little level built in to the nest back plate, but I found it wasn't exactly accurate.
So, I grab the real level and of course also eye balled it.
Attaching the wires now is easy especially for me since I only have 2 in my four stair furnace, but in every case the wire terminals on the backplate are tool less and clearly labeled, very nice.
Now, just snap the thermostat head itself onto the backplate and let it wake up.
No batteries, its powered by the voltage from your HVAC control circuit.
Now the cool part.
It asks you bunch of questions like how to get on the WiFi network and how you wanna configure it, its kinda like when you take a new iPad out and you set that thing up.
This is not like any thermostat you've had before.
It will ask you for some mode preferences, minimum away temperature and then let you know its gonna start learning for the next week as you turn it up and down at various times.
You can also program it more traditionally and it will learn on top of that.
Now if the thing goes black, don't panic.
It does that.
It will wake up every time you walk by it.
It had got a proximity sensor.
Or you can press the face to wake it up, rotate once you're there on that main menu around the perimeter.
Navigate to any function.
Press to select etcetera.
And perhaps best of all, changing temperature is the old school way, you just turn this thing.
Totally intuitive, no button button , button, button, button to go up or down.
Go to nest.com to set up a account and then you can access your thermometer from their app or a browser to do almost everything you can do here in person.
Now, I'll honest with you, putting them in is pretty easy, just to find 250 bucks, not as easy.
I'm not sure if you'll ever earn back its price differential , especially not in the house that just has a simple heater.
However for the remote accessibility , the easy programming function, the great interface and the great looks.
It is the iPad of Thermostats.